Friday 2 May 2014

Is Your Clinic/Practitioner Selling You Treatments You Don't Need?

The choice of cosmetic skin treatments is often entrusted to medical and health care professionals, with varying results. How do you know if you are being sold a treatment you don't need?


Guidelines given to doctors & nurses by the GMC/NMC state that treatments should only be given on clinical grounds. However, many practices are guilty of providing inappropriate or unnecessary treatments, products or services to their clients.

Is your clinic or practitioner selling you treatments you don't need?

What does "on clinical grounds" mean?

A medical or health care professional must only provide treatments where there is clinical evidence of a need for such treatments. For example, a visible skin condition. Therefore, offering a BOTOX™ treatment where there are no wrinkles present is not only unethical but also infringes such guidelines.

Furthermore, practitioners must consider the effectiveness and appropriateness of any treatment offered and must undertake a risk assessment too. If a practitioner believes a treatment to be inappropriate or ineffective then it must not be offered to the client.

How do I know if the right treatment has been offered?

Your practitioner is responsible, accountable even for any advice given and any treatment offered. He or she must not offer a treatment where, for example, the condition does not warrant the treatment, where there is insufficient evidence of the condition, or where it is believed that the treatment will be ineffective in treating the condition.

An example of an inappropriate treatment might be a premature BOTOX™ or dermal filler treatment (i.e. administered whilst the effects of a previous treatment are still visible), where a product has been over prescribed (i.e. the effects of the product have reached saturation point and any further product administration is completely ineffective) or where a practitioner charges for a product that is not needed. It can also relate to the selling of creams or lotions which are unsuitable for the condition for which they are prescribed.

In my own clinic I have encountered many clients whom have been persuaded into buying products at other clinics which the practitioner or therapist has insufficient knowledge of in relation to the client's condition.

I have concerns over many non medical or non prescription only 'skin care products' that are recommended and sold by therapists. Advising the public to buy a beauty cream to treat acne, for example is completely unacceptable. Not only would a therapist have no clinical knowledge of acne as a medical condition but they do not have access to any prescription products that are proven to effectively treat this condition.

Some examples of bad practice 

Last week a new client came to our clinic wanting a dermal filler lip enhancement. The lady in question was approximately 30 years old and with almost flawless skin. During an extensive consultation she informed me that a nurse in the Coventry/Rugby area had persuaded her to subscribe to a 2 year course of acid skin peels for a condition of sun damaged skin. However, despite the fact that she had only just began the course there was no clinical evidence of sun damaged skin whatsoever.

In the beauty industry I have witnessed therapists making comparisons between off the shelf skin creams and BOTOX™, a prescribed medicine. This too is unacceptable. A practitioner or therapist should only talk about a product, or products they have qualified knowledge of, including making comparisons between products.

How can I be sure I am getting a treatment or product that I actually need?

As with anything in medical aesthetics a thorough consultation is essential. If your practitioner is not prepared to spend sufficient time with you to explain the choice of treatment, therapy or product and to answer your questions then I would suggest finding another clinic.

Your clinical practitioner demonstrate knowledge of your condition and choice of therapy and should explain why the proposed treatment is appropriate for your condition. By all means do ask him/her exactly what qualifications they have relevant to your condition and treatment offered. If you need further reassurance then ask to see evidence of treatments performed by the practitioner.

If you are being offered a course of treatments then you should be assessed at intervals so that the practitioner can determine the progress and that the treatment continues to be appropriate for your needs.

A word about promotional treatments and packages

"Buy 2 areas of BOTOX and get a 3rd area free!..." "BOTOX save 10% when you bring a friend..." "Free BOTOX when you buy dermal fillers!"

These offers and many others like them are at best unethical whilst some may actually pose a risk to clients seeking treatments. Why? Simply because prescription medicines such as BOTOX™ must only be given following a face to face consultation. Furthermore, NHS boss Prof. Sir Bruce Keogh has also spoken of his desire to bring an end to unethical promotion of prescription medicines.

The key to many of these bad practices is predetermination.

What is predetermination and why does it matter?

Predetermination occurs when a practitioner agrees to supply, administer or prescribe a product to a client before conducting a face to face consultation. It may also relate to packages or promotional sales of treatments as these treatments are "sold" thus the practitioner is potentially discounting other more appropriate treatments.

The questions which need to be answered are how can it be determined that these "packaged" or "sold" treatments are in any way appropriate for "all clients" and how they can be determined as suitable for clients' whose conditions have yet to be examined by a qualified practitioner.

Other considerations

If getting the right treatment for your skin is important to you then arrange for a paid consultation with a suitably qualified medical aesthetics practitioner or dermatologist. Consultations should not cost as much as £100 or £150 but for less than half that amount you could get a proper diagnosis and avoid further unwanted expenses from unnecessary treatments later on.

About the author:

Helen Bowes is an experienced advanced medical aesthetics practitioner and critical care nurse. She operates 11 specialist skin clinics across England and Wales providing some of the most advanced dermal filler procedures in the UK. Helen is the only practitioner in the UK to have clinically developed her own advanced dermal filler systems for lips, cheeks and non surgical facelift. These unique treatments are exclusive to Skin Beautiful clinics.

Skin Beautiful Medical & Cosmetic Clinic was one of the first in the UK to undertake Allergan Juvederm certification for Vycross dermal fillers: Volbella, Volift and Voluma and remains one of very few UK clinics with specialist medical aesthetics qualifications and certification for every treatment provided.

Skin Beautiful clinics are held at Exeter, Milton Keynes, Bristol, Coventry, Swansea, Warwick & Stratford, Daventry, Evesham, Carmarthen, Llanelli and Neath

Links:

Skin Beautiful Clinic homepage
About Helen Bowes & Skin Beautiful Clinic
Advanced Dermal Filler Systems by Helen Bowes
Skin Beautiful Clinic Locations


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